R.E.M. is a special and important part of my life, and I cannot imagine a world without their records. I can think of few bands who have sustained a level of excellence, innovation and integrity that matches R.E.M., and they continue to release fantastic records that delight and surprise me.

Here are my favorite R.E.M. records (excluding compilations) in descending order, as well as my favorite song from each record:

Document ("Disturbance At The Heron House")Reckoning ("Little America")Automatic For The People ("Find The River")Murmur ("Pilgrimage")Reveal ("Beat A Drum")Lifes Rich Pageant ("Fall On Me")Chronic Town ("Wolves, Lower")Out Of Time ("Country Feedback")Up ("Parakeet")New Adventures In Hi-Fi ("Electrolite")Fables Of The Reconstruction ("Kahoutek")Green ("You Are The Everything")Monster ("You" or "Tongue")

In the Spring of 1989 I could listen to only one record. White Light White Heat. There has been only one other album in my life whose excellence garnered that treatment and I’m sure we all know what that is.

My friends, on the other hand, counted White Light White Heat as the lowpoint of the Velvet Underground’s output. The band they rated most highly was REM. I spent many, many nights in a room suffering through that band trying to figure out how people could be made so differently.

A few months ago I found an old cassette of Murmur and played it. It was really good. The highpoint was 9 – 9, which possessed a fast and loose, downright flailing guitar style that I had never associated with Peter Buck. The world shattering quandary raised by this re-appraisal is whether I have become old and a hopeless relativist in my tastes or the more troubling alternative—did my friends’ tastes back then possess a refinement I hadn’t detected? Or can an affinity for certain music arise simply from repeated exposure? All of these scenarios suck.

Nevertheless I’ve heard more recent REM songs since then and they remain unmitigated dreck. And Michael Stipe just might be the single most mannered, annoying person I’ve ever witnessed.

Last edited by alex on Tue Nov 18, 2003 6:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I too admire Brad for waving the REM flag. He has found something he truly loves, and it hasn't let him down. That's really cool.

Unfortunately, the thing itself, REM, is one of many manifestations of The Enemy.

Wait. First, let me list the things I like about REM:

Michael Stipe is an intelligent, entertaining person in conversation and attitude. I think he is okay.

They liked Andy Kaufman.

REM has been very supportive of Athens, Georgia, it's arts community and its music scene. They are true fans and genuine guys. I respect them.

The music, unfortunately is crap. Has always been crap. Dinky-dinky college pop (with a few trappings of "eclecticism" as dictated by the times) with some mumbling. It's not for me. REM represent a conformist, non-confrontational, self-absorbed streak in the music scene that I find unappealing. There isn't anything about their music that might stimulate thought. Wait... I thought of something:

One of my abiding R.E.M. memories relates to a recent conversation that I had with a friend of mine.

During our conversation, my friend, an inveterate R.E.M. hater, once again detailed for me his distaste for R.E.M. As he well knows, I am wholly unconcerned as to whether he or anyone else gives a damn about that band (or any other band that I respect, for that matter).

What I found totally compelling about the conversation was the analogy that he drew between himself (i.e., a person almost totally informed by the ideals and aesthetic of punk rock) and fans of 1950s "hard rock" (e.g., Duane Eddy, Link Wray). He recognized that fans of Duane Eddy or Link Wray in those days might have later sneered at, say, Buddy Holly for allegedly appropriating and watering down their sacred sound (despite the fact that Buddy Holly is actually great and has little to do with either Duane Eddy or Link Wray).

My R.E.M. hating friend then acknowledged that he might be hopelessly predisposed to hate R.E.M. simply because of a temporal accident. That is, R.E.M. arrived on the tail end of punk's cultural ascendence and possessed, at least superficially -- and to the chagrin of entrenched punks -- some of the same elements that a casual observer might perceive as "punk" (despite the fact that they have little to do with punk). Simply put, my friend felt that he might have had no choice but to hate R.E.M. simply because of when both he and they arrived, just as Duane Eddy and Link Wray fans might have disliked Buddy Holly.

In any event, I thought that this observation was one of the most fair and insightful self-critiques that I had ever heard. I think that the willingness and ability to revisit an opinion on a band that one detests and draw this type of opinion is pretty goddamned inspiring.

So with this attitude in mind, I'm going to go listen to some records by Weezer. Who knows? There might be a good reason, albeit latent, as to why I hate Weezer that has nothing to do with their music and everything to do with fool me.

early R.E.M. still has that murky feel that all the imitators in & out of the South never achieved. They had the misfortune to start out at a very polarizing time when the fact that they weren't HARD AND LOUD was held against them. Their direction definitely changed when they signed to Warners and became a pop band.

Living in Georgia, I have heard funny(but not scandalous stories about them)

I knew this old punk rock guy here in Atlanta, Spider, who saw them in their first year of existence. He said they played mostly covers, but you didn't really hear too many bands in Georgia play "Roadrunner", "There She Goes Again" or Fabulous Poodles covers. Spider also said that Stipe came up to him eagerly asking him if he liked his band.

In fact, their covers gained them instant popularity in Athens. They brought people to the 40 Watt that groups like the Method Actors would never bring. One old time Athens person remembers as just a party band and was amazed and how unique their records and later stage shows were.

The early R.E.M. records were directly responsible for putting me on the musical path I guess I'm still on today. I loved them to death. Stipe's mysterious melancholy and self-absorption, which went really well with the overall feel of the music, was delicious candy to me and many other kooky adolescents.

Much as I think of J.D. Salinger as a great writer of young adult fiction, I think of R.E.M. up to I'd say "Document" as a great band for young adults. Once you hit your 16th birthday or so, you should put them down.

Looking back on it now...they were just ridiculously influential to so many bands who were a part of the first really big wave of indie labels in the late 80's. Band after band after band slavishly and poorly imitated them. I'm so glad it isn't that way anymore.

Their drummer wasn't too hot. Peter Buck was born without the 'rock' chromosome. Audible vocals ruined whatever juice Stipe had. I never think about them or their music. What exactly is their legacy?

I bought the first lp because I thought it sounded psychedelic in a way. I saw them play that year and some of my friends went nuts. I couldn't figure out why some people were so over the top and devoted to them, they weren't that good.Much time was saved later when someone would recommend a band/record to me by saying "They're kind of like REM". I knew to steer clear instantly.